I took delivery of what has become known by me a "the mesmerizer" on 1/26/2008, so this subwoofer has been in my posession for about 3.5 months. This subwoofer was an upgrade from a PSW650 made by Polk Audio which I owned for about 5 years before getting the Ultra. I was heavily "imprinted" on the 650. It was my first sub woofer. It was pretty good with music and some movies, but couldn't handle really demanding LFE. The PSW650 has dual 10 woofers and is rated at 165 watts (250 watts max). It weighs 60 lbs. In contrast, the PB13-Ultra has a single 13.5", specially designed driver that weighs as much as my whole PSW650. The Ultra's BASH amp is conservatively rated at 750 watts RMS, and it weighs 155 lbs. I chose the rosenut finish.
The PB13-Ultra subwoofer arrived in a close by city, so I drove and picked it up from BAX Global. When I arrived at BAX Global and first saw the boxed up sub in person, I was stunned. It was the largest sub I'd ever seen. It's hard to get a feel for how large something is on the inernet sometimes. The truck driver at BAX loaded the subwoofer into the rear of my van for me with the aid of a fork lift, and it fit in the back of the van with some room to spare, much to my relief.
Once I got the subwoofer home, I actually managed to get it out of the van, into the house, and unpacked without any help from any one. I was very impressed at how well the sub was packed in the box(es). There was more than adequate protection of the goods for this shipment. The double boxed sub was very well packed in multiple layers of an insulating, shock absorbing packing material (foam) that was white in color. The sub was also inside of a very soft fabric bag. It seemed very well protected. Inside the box were the instruction manual, Avia II calibaration disk, analogue SPL meter, three port plugs, and, to my surprise a large SVS t-shirt.
To get the sub out of the box, I turned the box on its side laying on a towel, and I pulled the sub out of the box and onto the towel, so I could drag it to it new location in the living room. It was much easier than I thought it would be.
I moved the sub to where the 650 used to be, it really made the 650 seem small and inadequate. I connected the sub cable to the sub, and I plugged the subwoofer's power cord into the electrical outlet. I just stood there and stared at the sub wondering how it was going to sound and admiring its beauty. I just looked at that 13" woofer and I thumped it with my finger, but was very surprised to hear what seemed to be a ceramic/glass-like sound, as if the cone was made out of fiberglass. Very exotic indeed.
Before I powered the sub on, I turned the gain to the 11 o' clock postion. I flicked the power switch on the rear and noticed the nearby lamp dim, and the little green light came on. I figured the sub must have a decent current pull when powering on.
I fired up my AV receiver (Pioneer VSX-1015 TX) rated at 120 wpc driving Polk Audio RT7 mains, CSi30 center and RCA surrounds (don't laugh-they sound quite good actually) and plasma set at the touch of a button using my H1000 remote. I calibrated the sub using the Avia II DVD to 70 dB (MV setting of -15). I set the sub level in the receiver to -5 dB and turned the gain on the sub to 12 o'clock (I did not mess with any of the PEQ/Room comp settings yet). This put the sub at 75 dB (a little hot, and how I like it).
The very first song the sub played was by Bass Connection-Feel the Bass. Yes I'm a bass head. The sub was in 20 Hz mode. I turned the master volume on the receiver to -15. The begiining of this song has a very low frequency sweep from about 16 Hz up to 60 Hz. Wow did the room (house) shake! I immediately noticed palpable, deep bass that I had never felt from that song before with the PSW650. I spent some time listening to numerous familar songs (classical, jazz, rock acoustic, techno, electronica, metal) and was very impressed with the sub's musical ability. In my theater, this sub is used for about 60/40 music/moves. This sub is very tight, articulate and very authoritative. Let's just say it crushed the 650 musically.
The first movie was Star Wars II-Attack of the Clones. I chose this movie because of the opening scene where Senator Amidala's ship comes in and does several fly bys generating some powerful LFE. The PSW650 always flapped at normal listening volumes during this scene. It simply could not handle the track. The Ultra handles it effortlessly with no flapping or bottoming at all. As the ship landed there was a rumble like I remembered at the movie theater, but could never get at home. The ship blowing up was an incredible experience with the Ultra. It handled the scence with authority (yes it is an SVS). The PSW650 would bloat and bottom at the same level on this scene. War of the Worlds is fantastic with this sub as is Lord of the Rings. I find my self planning movies strictly for LFE challenge content now.
I have since gotten the sub dialed in and the PEQ/room comp adjusted to my liking, and I must say this is truly one fine subwoofer. I've experimented with placement as well and found the front left corner to work the best in my theater. Initially, I had to my right near the fireplace.
SVSound got this one right.
I still have a silly grin on my face.
